Goodell pushes for OT rule changes

ORLANDO, Fla. — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell likes the proposal to modify overtime in the playoffs. Can his support sway enough owners to approve it for next season?

The competition committee recommended Monday to the 32 owners that a team losing the coin toss and then surrendering a field goal on the first possession should have a series of its own in OT. Such a rules change would need 24 votes for ratification.

“This stays true to the integrity of the game,” Goodell said. “The competition committee has come up with something very much worth considering. It keeps the tradition of sudden death, and I think it is responsive to some of the issues that have been brought up.

“It’s getting a lot of thought. It’s got potential to be a better system,” Goodell said.
Statistics examined by the committee showed that since 1994, teams winning the coin toss win the game 59.8 percent of the time. The team that loses the toss wins the game 38.5 percent in that 15-year span, or since kickoffs were moved back 5 yards to the 30.

Those numbers alarmed Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian, a member of the committee.

“We felt the stats are so arresting that something needs to be done,” Polian said. “The original framers of the rule did not project the movement of the kickoff or an improvement of kickers.”

One owner who would seem to have reason to favor the modification, Minnesota’s Zygi Wilf, is not convinced it’s a wise move. The Vikings lost the coin toss for overtime in the NFC title game, then saw the Saints march to a winning field goal on the first and only series.

Still, as of Monday, Wilf was leaning toward voting no to a switch.

“We need consistency of the regular season and postseason,” he said.

But, as Polian and other committee members point out, the playoffs already have different overtime rules. During the regular season, a winner must be decided within a 15-minute extra period.

“We play until there is a winner,” Polian said of the playoffs.

Player safety is the reason the proposal is only for the playoffs.

“We are very concerned about injuries occurring, which is the one great reason it has not been proposed before,” Polian added.